Episode 09: Miss Muffet
Mother Goose's goslings decide to hide in the bushes. She tells them it's not nice when people can't find you and illustrates her lesson with the story of a little girl who ran away. Story Little Miss Muffet lived in a very big house. Mr. and Mrs. Muffet were very rich and very busy, leaving Miss Muffet home with an army of maids led by Nurse Holloweg. Miss Muffet, surrounded by every luxury and with a dozen servants to wait upon her, was not happy nor content. She wanted to run and play, but Nurse Holloweg told her it was unladylike and was shocked at the very thought of taking the girl outside - as fresh air is "full of germs". One afternoon Miss Muffet decided to act ill and her mother, who just happened to be at home at the time, suggested that Little Miss Muffet be taken to the countryside, where she was sure to be cured. Little Miss Muffet, Nurse Holloweg and the maids set off in a stagecoach to an Inn in the country. But Nurse Holloweg continued to refuse to let the girl go out or even open the window to get fresh air, which she claimed was "full of germs". Miss Muffet wondered what the point of going to the country was if she was just as stuffed up as she was in the city. So Miss Muffet decided to sneak out of the Inn and wander into the countryside to have some fun. She looked around upon the green fields and the waving grain, and drew in deep breaths of the fresh country air, and was happy for almost the first time in her little life. She soon met a farmer churning butter. Miss Muffet asked if she could try and the farmer gladly let the young girl try her hand at the work. After hours of churning, Miss Muffet was tired so the farmer decided to let her stop churning and rewarded her for all her work with a dish of curds and whey. He said she could go sit in the shade of the trees and enjoy her food. She looked for a place to sit, and finally discovered a little grassy mound, which is called a tuffet in the country, and sat upon it. She had just started to eat her curds and whey when a great large spider came down from the trees above. The girl had never seen such an enormous and hideous-looking spider before, and she was so frightened that she gave a scream, dropped her curds and whey on the ground, and ran away towards the farmer's house as fast as she could. It was there that she ran into Nurse Holloweg, who had come in search of the missing Miss Muffet. Miss Muffet explained how she was frightened by the spider, and Nurse Holloweg explained how she was frightened when Miss Muffet went missing. Relieved to have found Miss Muffet, Nurse Holloweg decided to allow Miss Muffet to have some time outside from then on. Notes * The story was loosely adapted from the tale of Little Miss Muffet in L. Frank Baum's "Mother Goose in Prose." Characters *Miss Muffet *Nurse Holloweg *the farmer *the spider Cast *Laura Goodwin as Miss Muffet *'Puppeteers:' Mike Quinby, Mak Wilson, Karen Prell, Angie Passmore Video releases *''Mother Goose Play-Along'' VHS (1995) *''Humpty Dumpty'' VHS (1995) *''Jack & Jill, Old King Cole, and many more!'' VHS/DVD (2005) __NOWYSIWYG__ Category:Mother Goose Stories Episodes